I have been tracking down shakes, clunks, and Loose Things in the front end of my hot rod 240. It's a green 1989 244GL with a 1994 940T engine and AW71 transplant. It's a lot of fun, and the conversion is several years old and well proven. However, I've got lots of little jobs to do on the car, because the body is getting close to 300K miles, and some things are wearing out.

Today I replaced front sway bar bushings. These are the ones that mount the sway bar or stabilizer to the front frame rails. Mine were so bad you could see light around the bar!

I ordered all the parts through FCP, and you could also get them from the dealer, as they are mostly Genuine Volvo. If your car has never had the bushings replaced, you either need to locate bushings that fit the original style brackets, or upgrade the brackets to install the new bushings which have a big locating bump molded in the middle.

I used 2 Scan Tech bushings, P/N 1273184 or 85.3184,
2 Volvo outer brackets (they call it a "clamp") 1330185
2 Volvo inner brackets 1359391

I did not need to remove the end links, but it's a good time to inspect those as well, because they're frequently heavily rusted, with bushings squished out or even broken.

I jacked up the car under the center of the front crossmember, and set both front tires on wheel ramps. (My car doesn't like to drive up onto the ramps.) The success of this job really requires the front wheels to be loaded. Large blocks under the wheels would be fine too. You want the suspension level in any case, not extended.

Remove the splash pan if you still have one, 10mm bolts all the way around.

Bracket removal required a good deal of force with a 14mm breaker bar. A 3" extension or a 1/2" drive deep socket will make it much easier to get between the bracket and the front of the steering rack.

Once loose, I used my 3/8" drive electric impact to buzz the bolts out. Very handy little tool, but a regular ratchet will serve just fine. The electric impact doesn't make enough torque to break these loose or for final tightening.

My brackets were very rusty inside, and one bushing was half gone. I wiped the sway bar off, and applied a thin layer of grease to the bushing locations.

The bushing rubbers are split so they slip over the bar. The bracket pieces have offset holes and tabs at the end so they will only assemble happily one way. The frame holes likewise are close to a welded edge, so you'll see that the brackets only fit on the frame well in one orientation.

I recommend getting the back bolt into place first, screwed in loosely, then install the front bolt. It's easier to line up like that but wasn't hard in any case. Be careful not to cross-thread these captive nuts in the frame.

I'd say it's a 1-hour job for a novice, somewhat less for an expert. The installation is very straightforward and there were not many things to go wrong.

Comments welcome.

--Rob
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89 244GL Turbo // 92 244 M47 \\ 90 745T // 76 242 Convertible